Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: eBay is Destroying the doll collectors market! Sa...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: eBay is Destroying the doll collectors market! Sa...:  Here is the link to Rachel Hoffman's YouTube channel where she speaks out about eBay's latest move which is hurting doll collecting...

American Doll and Toy Museum: American Doll and Toy Museum is Open!!

American Doll and Toy Museum: American Doll and Toy Museum is Open!!

Pym was not a stranger to toys and recreation.  A father Christmas figure, soap animals, "bits and pieces" antiques, Cycladic idols stuffed animals, and more appear in her novels.  Our museum is open, and some of her books are there, too.  We even have a Pym doll and a Virginia Woolf nutcracker. Don't forget her fellow writer Denton Welch loved doll houses!

Pymian Material Culture

 

Material Culture

 

Happy Mother’s Day, a day I can no longer celebrate since I lost my mom and my aunt, but all the same.

 

I was pondering human individuality, and what our things and what we do with them say about us.  One famous art teacher and collector likes to pick up discarded grocery lists.  The contents of shopping lists, and the tasks we write on our daily planners says a lot about us.  Like snowflakes, no two are alike. We all write mini autobiographies when we pen a list, especially for the super market.  How we do it is also telling.  I used to write mine in my daily planner; now I text it to myself.  No time to write it down.  I’ve also used neat little pads like my aunt, or scraps of paper.  My mom write lists for dad, or cruised the aisles working from memory.

 

It’s telling what things we put over and over; coffee, oatmeal, cat food, Clamato juice, coke.

 

The books on our shelves, or lack thereof, also say a lot about us.  Some artists do portraits of people by painting the books on their book shelves.  If we collect, or not, also says a lot.  What we collect says even more.  No two collections are every alike.

 

People who save nothing make a statement, too, as do those who painstakingly arrange their shoes and wardrobe.

 

Stuff matters.  It defines us.  It lives after us to describe who we are.  Think King Tut, the Emperor’s Tomb, the Snettingham Horde.

 

People in Barbara Pym books all have their bits and pieces.  Marcia her bags, milk bottles, and string.  All have their books.  Leonora Eyre has her perfect antiques.  Older women their flea market finds, or bits and pieces.  Clergyman have soap animals and Faberge eggs.  Norman his stuffed animals at the Brit Museum.

 

Some characters mentally collect license plates.  They would love Pinterest.  Jewelry is important to some, others have hobbies like caring for cats and hedge hogs.  Jumble sales and Bring and Buys are routine. All have their books and magazines.

 

Even in simple things, what we chose to keep and discard from the material world defines us.

 

Thoughts to ponder.

American Doll and Toy Museum: Thinking outside the Doll House, A Memoir, is now ...

American Doll and Toy Museum: Thinking outside the Doll House, A Memoir, is now ...: Here is the link: Thinking outside the Doll House:  https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Outside-Doll-House-Memoir-ebook/dp/B08W9QFPB9/ref=sr_1_1...

Here it is after 17 years of research and constant editing and rewriting; Thank you Dr. Roald Tweet.  This is the story of us, our museum, me, my friends and family, and of course, the dolls.